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Dark Dwarf
Back to Races Units ''Engineer'' The builder and the only Dwarf-like unit along with the hero, he has a good building skill, counts as two miners when sent to a mine and can be upgraded to repair structures using Earthpower. He also has suprisingly good armor and resistance for a builder, as well as slashing resistance though he is vulnerable to piercing. Build Skill 12 ''Stone Golem'' The basic Dark Dwarven infantry unit, it has good armor and resistance, causes a fine amount of crushing damage, is resistant to piercing attacks making it excellent for killing archers but is also very slow to move, slow to hit and unfortunately can't be put to towers. Also, worth of mention is its electrical weakness, shared by all golems as well as its amazing hit points. ''Iron Golem'' Another strong golem, this one can summon Fiebombs (exploding siege spiders), withstand slashing damage which is one if not, the most common attack type, has better armor than the Stone Golem while its attack causes damage to EVERY enemy close to it. Has all the weaknesses of the other golems: electrical weakness, slow attack and move speed as well as inability to garrison. ''Firebomb'' The Firebomb is a suicide bombing siege unit that is very cheap and resembles a spider. They are quite useless when facing missle units. When facing large armies the firebomb can quickly lay waste to many enemies due to their splash damage. They can be used for two interesting, surprise attacks: Iron Golems can wait unitl enemies come close, summon Firebombs and have them cause mayhem at enemy ranks. The other one is a defensive trick: put some in towers and either release them one by one against foes or in the case they destroy the tower in melee do nothing and watch them pop out of the tower and destroy the hostiles in a somewhat comical way. ''Ballista'' ''Catapult'' ''Battering Ram'' ''Flame Cannon'' A siege weapon for the Dark Dwarves, this one causes a huge amount of Fire damage which with upgrades reaches 90 damage(!). It is equally useful for destroying enemy units as it is useful for razing buildings. Unfortunately, it can't hit air targets, though many other units can dispose aerial threats in no time. It is piercing-resistant like most siege weapons but most ironically, it is also has a vulnerability of Fire. ''Hellbore'' ''Bronze Golem'' The strongest of all three golems as well as the general for the Dark Dwarves, the Bronze Golem might be very slow but is truly a force to reckon with. ''Like all generals, it can convert neutral and enemy buildings for the player and may be upgraded for even faster conversion. It is one of the strongest generals in the game; it is very tough, resistant to piercing but vulnerable to electrical attacks, causes a huge amount of damage which in combination with the Shatter as well as the Weaponsmith/Mithril upgrades will reach 75 (crushing type) and has an ability to scavenge resources from destroyed buildings making it even better as a retinue unit due to the need for resources in the early game. It is also fairly cheap for its usefulness, though it is slow to create as well as to move. Buildings Strategy Overview The Dark Dwarves are one of the elite races in the game that really don't have any glaring weaknesses. Their Engineers reap double rewards from placement in mines, allowing for rapid early production. They have a great mix of melee and ranged attacks, plus a few specialty units that create a truly lethal force for both offense and defense. Their hero race/class combinations and buildings have a few drawbacks (addressed below) but hardly anything significant enough to prevent the Dark Dwarves from being one of the most effective race selections in the game. ''The Race Units Slow is the word of the day for the Dark Dwarves. Dark Dwarven units are slow to build, slow to move, and slow to attack. To make matters worse, most of their units draw heavily on stone and metal, limiting their (already slow) production rate. That said - these same units are extraordinarily strong, full of hit points, and carry plenty of armor and resistance. So do your best to stagger your golem production (among various types requiring different resources) while focusing on building the structures needed to produce your wyverns, wraiths/shadows, and siege engines (particularly the hellbore). As always, try to avoid letting your choice of unit production slow your keep improvements. Build an army of firebombs (either directly, or through iron golem production) and task them with base defense until you amass the forces needed to assault your opponent's base. Shadows are priceless - build a handful and send them all after a high-level enemy hero. The result will be a supershadow of level 20+, worthy of retaining in your retinue. Bronze Golems are relatively poor generals for production during a battle, although they are excellent choices for your retinue. In the endgame phase when they are available for production, their ability to scavenge resources is of negligible value, but early in the game, it can be priceless. Don't forget to set their attribute to Magic Defender so they automatically take advantage of this benefit. Fully upgraded Flame Cannons are absolutely devastating. They may not be able to target flying units, but the Hellbores and golems can take care of that easily. Once fully upgraded, Flame Cannons have 90, yes, that's right 90 Fire damage! This insane power is usually only within the reach of very special characters indeed. A Dark Dwarven assault force should consist of (at a minimum) a mixed core of golems on the front line, a couple of lines of Hellbores and Flame Cannons, and perhaps some shadows, firebombs, or wyverns in support (optional). The golems and hellbores alone are usually sufficient to take down a base, although a small group of wyverns or shadows tasked to guard the siege engines from attack is always a good idea. Once the enemy base is more defenceless, send in Firebombs to utterly annihilate the foe. Buildings ''Heroes'' The Dark Dwarven Tinker is a hero to be greatly feared, and for good reason. The Metal and Stone production costs of the units becomes negligible at higher levels (~ lvl 40). This allows the Tinker to excel in producing a massive and powerful army of golems to steamroll the entire map with. This isn't the only benefit of a Tinker however. They can also vastly improve the hits of all buildings, most importantly, including the towers. The Dark Dwarven magic speciality is in the Chaos Magic sphere. Chaos Magic is an unpredictable and often detrimental smagci sphere, although a few selections are useful. (namely Wildfire/Chaos Bolt and Chaos Plague, but also Morph Resources). Given a preference to neglect magic as a Dark Dwarven hero, you could typically select the Warrior class and enjoy the Constitution synergy. For magic users, Shaman or Deathknight are the best choices, as both allow a synergy in Chaos Magic. Another choice could be a Runemaster. In combination with the Engineer skill, Dig is useful for creating tough buildings in no time, Earthpower can repair the said buildings, Statues can be summoned for extra base defence while Doomstones and Stonecall harass and support against enemies respectively. Also, Quarrying is worth a mention. This skill provides a steady income of stone to produce and construct with. Time Magic provides spells that increase resource and unit production, buff the hero and his army while debuffing enemies, summon Wraiths (which can be upgraded at the Ancestral Hall) and kill many enemies at once with the Breath of Dying spell. Of course as a tertiary magic sphere you can still learn Chaos Magic, which might have poor early spells but the later ones can be truly useful and add extra versatilty to an already flexible mage/builder/leader hero. Counters *All of the golems are vulnerable to electrical damage. *Splash damage from units like Catapults or fire resistant units can help get around a horde of Firebombs. Ballistae and the High Elf Manticore may also work but may require more backup depending upon the formation of the Firebombs. *Fast units may attempt to take advantage of the slow golems and flank the siege weaponry whenever possible, but watch out for Firebombs and/or Iron Golems. *Dark Dwarves can't garrison units other than retinue ones and heroes in towers to increase their damage. The lower the Army Setup Points on a map, the more likely their towers will have upgraded damage. In any case un-garrisoned Dark Dwarf towers can't hold out for long without backup by units, many other towers and/or mortars against a powerful siege. To avoid any damage from garrisoned Firebombs, use flying units (particularly Storm Dragons or Lightning Hawks) or long range siege units like Catapults (if you use units with lower range, be careful not to get hit by mortars). Try to keep the pressure on the Dark Dwarf player. *Losing access to Metal or Stone can put a big dent in Dark Dwarf production. However, taking out Dark Dwarf Metal Mines is probably a wiser choice as a greater range of units require the resource, in particular the Iron Golem. *As the majority of Dark Dwarven units are mechanical, they are unable to place experienced golems or siege weaponry into a retinue, which means the Dark Dwarf hero either needs to play another race to get certain units (such as Scarabs or Gazers to upgrade towers for example) or the retinue of the Dark Dwarf will be predictable and/or bland in variety. Lore